


Aubade

by vivacephoenix



Category: Infernal Devices Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: F/M, Family, Gen, Married Life, Poetry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-18
Updated: 2015-03-18
Packaged: 2018-03-18 13:05:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3570689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vivacephoenix/pseuds/vivacephoenix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An aubade-a love song in the morning. Early morning traditions at the London Institute, May 1890.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Aubade

**Author's Note:**

> I have a number of notes I want to make before this! I wrote this because I wanted something fun with a lot of fluff. There’s a little bit of angst, but I think most TID fic has some. The idea of Will writing letters to Tessa throughout their marriage is the wonderful ashesandhoney's. 
> 
> For some more context for this fic, I want to explain the poetry choices. An aubade is a morning love composition. (The opposite of a serenade, which is an evening love song or poem.) An epithalamium was a type of Greek poem associated with weddings. Tessa and Will are reading Spenser’s Renaissance work, Epithalamion. Finally, the first poem quoted is William Blake’s “To Morning”. 
> 
> Enjoy, and please let me know what you think!

During the business of the day, Tessa never noticed St. Paul’s chime. Having lived in London for a dozen years, the only time she really heard the cathedral anymore was out on patrol at night or early in the morning. The chiming had interrupted Tessa watching Gabriel and Charlotte’s conversation. As they were talking elephants with matching bonnets, this time it was (hopefully) a dream. She must have heard the morning bells.

“ _Awake the dawn that sleeps in heaven; let light/Rise from the chambers of the East, and bring_ —”

“ _The honey’d dew that cometh on waking day_.” Tessa sleepily muttered into the pillow. “What time is it?”

There was a noise that sounded like Will placing two china cups on the bedside table. “Quarter-past six.”

She smiled, yawned, and rolled to face him, but kept her eyes closed. “I’ve practically had a lie-in, then. Did you finish the Spenser without me? Or have you been busy with Rigid, Unexciting, Bland, Bothersome, Institute Systems and Hierarchies?” Considering how early it was in the morning, some of the syllables were not clear, but Will understood to which word-game of theirs she was referring. He smiled.

“RUBBISH, to start. One of the Council members in Australia sent a fire-message around five o’clock with his comments on the guest list for our tea with the Praetor Lupus next month. I wrote him a response, but it reminded me of the last supper with Scott. There was a letter I wanted to write.” Tessa opened her eyes and looked up at him standing next to the bed in his blue-silk dressing gown and trousers.

“Did you write to Magnus to tell him about my flying us over London on three hat stands, while dragon demons chased us?” Will’s smile broadened at her description.

“No, but I think we should tell him. Magnus would enjoy it.” He laid a warm hand on her bare arm, eyes bright in the soft sunlight. “The letter wasn’t for him. After that, I went to make us some tea and visited the Nursery. They’re still asleep, but with Lucie’s party today, I wager she will wake up James soon.”

“I told her last night at supper that she was not to wake Klaudija or Emiko when she wanted to start celebrating. She should come to us,” Tessa said as she reached out for one of the teacups on the nightstand.

Will nodded and knelt down to pick up her nightgown from the floor. “I’m glad they’re all getting on so well together. Emiko told me she didn’t expect the hand-delivery of an invitation to a three-year old’s birthday on her first day in London, but it made her feel more at home.”

Tessa placed the tea back on the nightstand and took the gown from him. As she pulled the white-lace over her head, she asked, “Well then, time to finish the Spenser before breakfast and parties?” Will lifted his hand to stroke her cheek briefly and walked back around to the other side of the bed. _Amoretti and Epithalamion_ was still on his nightstand from a few days before. Tessa crawled out from under the bedclothes and pulled her nightdress down the rest of the way as Will cuddled up next to her, with the book in his right hand.

“Your hands and feet are warm, but your face is cold, love. That’s what happens when you wake so early by yourself,” Tessa teased. He grinned and leaned in for a kiss.

A few minutes later, Tessa pulled back, now with the book in her left hand. She saw that the left side of Will’s dressing gown was askew and she could see the runes on his chest and over his heart. She ran her fingers over them, Parabatai and Wedded Union, and fixed the tie of the gown.   

“Thinking on invitations…” she murmured. “Do you think we will see him today?” Will sighed and rubbed the inscription on her necklace.  _When two people are at one in their inmost hearts…_

“Gideon gave him the tea invitation when he went to the Silent City on Council business. He’ll come tonight, long after it ends.”

“The Brotherhood wouldn’t like him attending a party with all of us,” Tessa acknowledged. “A waste of time in their minds.”

“I should propose an Act at the next Clave meeting. All parties must be supervised by one Silent Brother, to ensure the Law is always upheld.  _Sed lex, dura lex_.” Will jokingly used his firm, determined Head voice, but there was still longing in his eyes.

“I can see certain members of the Council debating the definition of a party,” Tessa said with a roll of her eyes.

“Precisely.” Will gave a small smile and laced their fingers together. “We’ll ask Jem’s input on it tonight.” Tessa kissed his cheek and lifted the Spenser again.

“My turn to start?” And so they continued reading Spenser’s poem to his bride, the book across their laps and heads together:

_“Never had man more joyfull day then this/Whom heaven would heape with blis…”_

_“Ring ye the bels, ye yong men of the towne/And leave your wonted labors for this day:/This day is holy; doe ye write it downe/That ye for ever it remember may…”_

_“Eternally bind thou this lovely band/And all thy blessings unto us impart…”_

_“And happy influence upon us raine/That we may raise a large posterity/Which from the earth, which they may long possesse/With lasting happinesse…”_

_“So let us rest, sweet love, in hope of this…”_

As they finished the poem, the bells of St. Paul’s rang again. Will glanced up at the clock. “Quarter to seven? We’ll have to wake the children for breakfast soon. Ragnor Fell will be here at nine to talk about what he heard from that man in Newcastle.” Tessa looked up the clock and then at Will.

“That is true,” she began and leaned over him to put the book on the nightstand. “But I believe we have until seven.”

Will ran his hand along her back and raised his eyebrow, in an expression learned from her. “Do you have official matters for us until seven o’clock?” She giggled and pulled on her nightdress to lift her leg over his hip. Their faces inclined toward each other and—

 _BANG._ “Today is my birthday!” Lucie announced from the Nursery. Tessa and Will broke apart with a laugh and waited for their door to open next. “There’s our fearless birthday girl,” Will commented fondly. Two sets of stockinged feet were stomping down the hall. Lucie’s were sprinting, but James was walking more slowly. There was another loud noise as she opened the door to Will and Tessa’s room.

“Good morning, Mummy and Da! Today is my birthday. I am three years old.” She ran at the bed and rolled over the top of the trunk, landing upside-down on the mattress.  Tessa grabbed one of the little feet sticking up in the air. “Yes, you are. Our little Lady Lucie.” Lucie poked Will’s knee. “Someday I will be the much big lady, like Mummy. She is the best.” Will nodded and turned her right-side up.

“Yes, she is,  _cariad_ ,” he said and kissed the top of her head. “James, love, mind the wall.”  James had a blanket draped over one shoulder and blinked drowsily at them from the doorway. Lucie jumped up and down on the bed.

“I waked up James because today is my birthday. I wear my pretty, pretty lellow dress and EAT SPECIAL ORANGES WITH CAKE. Lellow is my favorite color. Auntie Cecily likes blue, Cousin Christopher likes red…” she continued, bouncing between her parents.

“ _Bach_ , why don’t you come sit with us?” Tessa called to him and patted the rumpled bedclothes. He shook his tangled curls out of his face and walked over. Tessa snapped her fingers to summon a comb from the vanity. James yawned when Tessa started to comb his hair.

“I wanted to sleep more, but Lucie jumped on my bed.”

Tessa chuckled. “Your sister is just eager to start her birthday festivities. You woke up Aunt Charlotte, Uncle Henry, and Charles on your third birthday.” James turned to look over his shoulder at Tessa with his gold eyes.

“That is true, Mummy. And Lucie is a baby.”

“I am not a baby!” Lucie declared. “Babies don’t have much friends and I have ninety-seven friends.”

“Right,” James grinned. “We’ll see them at your party. Da, can Charles, Anna, Eugenia, Matthew, and I patrol the Institute during Lucie’s party?”

“Only if a parent goes on patrol as well,” Will said firmly. “I don’t want anyone accidentally getting locked in the larder again.”

“Anna saved us from the Raum demons, Da,” James explained.

Will looked at James and cupped his cheek. “We’ll warn everyone about potential demons in the larder, but a parent still has to go with you. Someday, you all will train and patrol on your own. But not today.”

“Someday we train, today is my party!” Lucie added.

“Mummy, will Da write a birthday song for Lucie, like he did for me?”  James asked Tessa.

“Of course,  _cariad_. Anything for the two of you,” Will said seriously as he met all of their eyes. “You can help me write it at breakfast.”

“Mummy, can we please have breakfast on the roof? It’s my birthday.” Lucie said earnestly.

“Let’s see…” Tessa reached to fit her arms around James, Lucie, and Will. “I think so. Birthdays are special.”

“Picnic on the roof! Picnic on the roof!” Lucie, and now James, started chanting and hopping again.

“First, we all need to change out of our nightclothes. It’s cold on the roof in the morning.” Tessa picked up Lucie and Will gathered up James. As they walked towards the bedroom door, Tessa snapped her fingers to remake the bedclothes.

“Auntie Cecily and Uncle Gabriel have a surprise for Lucie’s birthday,” James whispered to Will and Tessa. Luckily, Lucie had pulled off her right stocking, not listening to them. “They said not tell her, but we know. She will like it.” He giggled to himself.

Lucie handed her stocking to Will. “Mummy said birthdays are special. Are birthdays pretty days, too?”

“Birthdays are very pretty days,” Will agreed. Tessa looked down at Lucie in her arms and then at James resting his head on Will’s shoulder. She reached out to take Will’s hand and his fingers brushed her runed bracelet. The final two lines of the Spenser poem from earlier came to her mind:

_“Be unto her a goodly ornament/And for short time an endlesse moniment.”_

The morning bells chimed the hour. 


End file.
